If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Don't worry yourself mate, knowing your music is 99% of the battle, and in my opinion you have a good taste in DnB, loving the track selection for this mix.

Just practice, play music you know well and love and you'll be amazing yourself before you know it.

man honestly, you learn more by doing in a "trial by fire" by just going out there and doing your thing. whats the worst that happens? you screw up a couple of times. but YOU REMEMBER SCREWING UP AND YOU DONT DO IT AGAIN and you do everything in your power not to... best learning curve ever.

and really? the only thing thats separating dj's now or a few yrs in the future is/will be -- track selection. if you have great tunes and know when people want em and how to give em to you is WAYYYY more important IMO than being able to cue juggle or do any sort of effects (yes they add to how you are giving the crowd thsoe tracks in a memorable way but they arent the staple of the proformance.... the tracks are).

and as for if your ready for your first gig its like anything in life, "go big or go home". no one famous ever go there by taking things slow and being cautious. they went out there, did their thing, didnt care what the fuck people thought-- because if they did they wouldnt have gone nearly as far as they did -> proving the haters wrong every second they kept going, and catapulted themselves into the history books.

Haha nice motivational post there
The thing is, people don't want an 18 year old nobody djing at their events. But WHERE DO I START?! My mixes are good (well, they're not bad are they?) so how do I get an events organiser to take a risk and book me for a gig?

dood, people dont wanna hire me (im 23) when they ask how old i am and what i use. but if/when they do. they are always throughly impressed.

make them want you.

or just keep bugging them until finally theyre like, ok lets give this kid a shot so he leaves me alone. then Boom, ya in.

^^thats how i get my girlfriend to make me food

oh and as for where to start. just go around talking to people (bars/resturants/middleschools+highschools) and bring up your name and what you do and that if they find themselves in need, to give you a call. you may do that 20 or 30 times and only get 2 hits, but its worth it cause then you make a name for yourself. --- gotta network kids

oh and play houseparties for your friends. nothing takes away the jitters like having your friends as your audience. especially when you screw up cause theyll tell you even if you didnt notice.

Drum & Bass - Gridding

Originally Posted by DJWilliams

Hoodless all the songs I played were 172-176bpm and Traktor beatgridded them perfectly.

I would be VERY surprised if this is the case. When I first started with the S4 I had Traktor grid all my D&B (it's all I am playing till the new Buck's Fizz album is released). Some looked ok but were not even close to the accuracy you need to mix effectively. Others were just a train wreck.

I would ignore Traktor's best guest and do each and everyone yourself manually. You will end up with far tighter grids and will learn a lot in the process.

I would be VERY surprised if this is the case. When I first started with the S4 I had Traktor grid all my D&B (it's all I am playing till the new Buck's Fizz album is released). Some looked ok but were not even close to the accuracy you need to mix effectively. Others were just a train wreck.

I would ignore Traktor's best guest and do each and everyone yourself manually. You will end up with far tighter grids and will learn a lot in the process.

Good luck!
SmiTTTen

The only ones I have problems with are the ones with real instruments e.g. an acoustic guitar. Most of the dnb I have is all 174bpm and therefore easy to beatgrid as the kicks are all a certain distance from eachother.

2 or 3 shots at a gig is pretty good man. One of the guys signatures on this site says "in order to be heard, you need to be seen in the scene you want to be heard in" so basically get out there, make connections, show your stuff and be positive. If you do a gig, you never know who's in the crowd.

Ex: I was doin a house party, like most of the people on here im a controllerist, which, IMO dosent usually command as much respect as the tridtional scratch/turntable dj's. Well long story short, one of the kids at the house party was DJ at a near by bar/club. He came up and started talking to me about my equipment and so on. At the end of the night he told me I killed it, asked where I played and if I would have any open nights to play at the bar/club he worked at. Told him i had never done a paid gig before, so we did one together. It was awesome.

And as far for tough transitions, a really simple one that works awesome for different BPM's is the delay t3 effect, in advanced mode. have your song playing, Get all the settings where you want them, start the delay t3 Effect, then hit the freeze button. Pause the current while brining in the other deck. the echo effect will either catch up or slow down to the track your bringing in.

Try not to do wicked dramatic tempo changes though, throws off the flow of the dance floor. Also the house parties are key. Like they said, if you mess up, most of the time the only one that notices is yourself.

I was at a motorcycle rally with my mother and stepfather (Ran by the Club he was a member of).
The DJ was gonna be late, as always i had my CD-Wallet and walkman on me and i was raised on Sabbath, Hawkwind, Deep purple etc. so i got shown how to use the shitty rackmount CDJs they had and span away as like 500 bikers turned up lol.

Then after that they gave me a friday/saturday/sunday residency in the back (Metal) room of the bar. Progressed on to the front room, then moved to another rock/metal bar and began running my own nights (Ska and reggae) at a few locations, then doing warm up sets for various Drum N Bass crews whom i met from the reggae and ska events.

By then i was turning 18 so i began doing weddings etc., pretty much any gig i could get aswell as still spinning DnB and the occaisonal house set, as i knew most of the club/bar/hotel owners in my town by this point.

Now i've moved to London and i'm beginning that journey again, the hardest part is trying to be "there" every time to meet people and network.

It's ridiculous how you can go from no gigs to offers everywhere...word of mouth is the most powerful tool.

I am a new comer to the DJing world as well. I just started in October. I've been practicing a bunch at home and what not as well.

The thing is now come time to play, I have been searching for small gigs here and there. I ended up getting my first real thing far from where I expected. I was walking to my school cafeteria and I walked past the quad where the schools radio thing was playing and they had a booth setup. They had people walking around handing out flyers, some guy came up to me - I chatted with him and he ended up telling me to try to join. I went in for orientation and now I am on the radio for 30 minutes a week. Although that's not big by any means, its helped me get my name out there in my college and my websites been getting a ton of hits (Like 1700+ in the first 3 days it was up).

Another crazy thing happened as well, some dude who i've known since 7th grade (we don't talk much, well didn't, simply cause he was into a whole lot of drugs / motorcycle gang and what not) saw my little setup on Facebook and told me he's into production himself and he converted his garage into a studio told me to come by. I was extremely skeptical but after being there for a few hours they were producing some crazy tracks that I could totally hear at our clubs over here. They listened to me mix and stuff and said they want me to join them. And I was there to learn from the other dude anyway (I told him that) and which is why I initially went. So now i'm learning / producing with them as well.

My whole point to this is, you never know where opportunity might be knocking on your door. Don't always expect things to come your way in one form. Make sure you ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS keep your eyes peeled, and talk to anyone and everyone who shows even the slightest bit interest in you and your djing.